4.4 Shareholder Identification
Author: Nick Gradel, Investor Update
The shareholder structure of a company often remains largely anonymous – but it does not have to be this way. A thorough understanding of your shareholders is one of the fundamental cornerstones of a successful Investor Relations strategy, for several reasons:
- Identifying key shareholders down to fund level and analyzing their buying or selling activity in order to prioritize investor engagement and allocate management access effectively.
- Assessing corporate governance policies and potential voting risks ahead of the AGM, as well as enabling efficient vote reconciliation.
- Detecting and monitoring potential activist investors at an early stage.
- Leveraging an accurate ownership view to target institutions that are not yet invested, but show strong potential compared to relevant sector, regional or financial peers.
Starting Points for Shareholder Analysis
- Disclosable Positions: Shareholders reaching or crossing regulatory thresholds (in Switzerland starting at 3%) are required to notify the SIX Swiss Exchange. However, such disclosures only cover a small portion of overall ownership.
- Share Registers: These provide a starting point and are transparent for domestic investors, but international institutions usually sit behind omnibus or nominee accounts. In practice, over 50 global custodians – such as State Street, JPMorgan Chase or UBS – hold shares on behalf of third parties. Since international investors typically account for more than 50% of the free float in Swiss companies, this represents a major blind spot.
- Public Filings and Data Sources: Many investors – particularly US asset managers – disclose their holdings on a monthly or quarterly basis, often aggregated by platforms such as Bloomberg or FactSet. While this can provide incremental insight, it is usually incomplete or outdated, often covering only 30–60% of the free float. Moreover, hedge funds, broker positions and significant portions of wealth or sovereign wealth capital are generally absent.
Shareholder Identification as the Most Effective Solution
A Shareholder Identification (Share ID) carried out by specialised providers remains the only way to achieve a near-complete view of the shareholder base. By leveraging existing regulations to request disclosures from custodians and investors, these providers build a bottom-up picture of ownership that typically identifies 90–100% of the free float.
Most listed companies therefore conduct Share IDs on a regular basis:
- Large caps usually quarterly,
- Small and mid caps once or twice a year.
In special situations – such as contentious AGM proposals, M&A transactions or activist approaches – the frequency is often increased significantly.
Last update: September 22nd, 2025